Scientology's beliefs weren't issue on trial

Tuesday, January 21, 2003

To the editor:

I am responding to James Beebe's Dec. 16 letter. Beebe wrote in support of assertions by Scott Moyers making an issue of the attorney representing Rodney Yoder being a Scientologist. He also expressed misconceptions about the Church of Scientology. In their attempts to exaggerate the intent of the attorney, Randy Kretchmar, both Moyers and Beebe got it wrong.

The abuse of Yoder's rights are well-documented. The religious beliefs of appropriate legal representation were not on trial. The Church of Scientology was not on trial, but the pseudo-scientific assertions of psychiatry and the abuse of commitment laws were.

Scientologists do not think psychiatrists "are some entity outside of medicine." However, Scientologists find the assumptions of psychiatry about the human condition and the techniques developed for its repair to be barbaric and reprehensible. Enforced incarceration without access to due process is wrong. Yoder served time for his offense. The only crime for which he continues to be held seem to be his obnoxiously rude attitude and his refusal to submit to psychiatric drugging.